Nitrate in the News
Nitrate News -- March, 1999
- Californian promises pure tap water without filters or fuss (The
Monterey County Herald, Calif., 26 Mar ’99; Environmental News Network) "Thirty
families across Monterey County, California, are receiving pure drinking water directly
from the kitchen faucet. They don't run the water through a carbon filter beneath the
sink, don't pick it up at the local market and don't lug it in from the front porch in
weighty bottles. In fact, they simply turn on the faucet and fill their cups. Pure and simple. Kirk Kennedy, who co-founded Kennedy Bros. spraying and
fertilizer equipment company in 1990, has invented a system that brings pure water from an
external 50-gallon tank directly into the kitchen, where it is dispensed through a
dedicated faucet. Water hasn't always been so fashionable. According to the July
1987 edition of Plumbers & Mechanics magazine, an 8-year-old Barbados girl, while
visiting her grandmother in Boston in 1714, complained to her father that Grandma was
making her drink water. Dad wrote back and insisted his child be served beer or wine
instead, as befitting her station in life. With the advent of an underground pipe system
in 1725, though, distaste for water began to diminish. By 1842, the Croton Aqueduct system
made it possible to supply buildings with running water. In 1998, an 11-year old Peninsula
girl reached for her beverage of choice -- a glass of Fresh and Pure Drinking Water -- and
became the poster child for her father's namesake company. As with most inventions,
Kennedy's system evolved out of passion. He loves water -- pure water. But, he also hated
dragging the heavy bottles of fresh water from the front door to the garage to the kitchen
crock to the pitcher to the glass -- only to find the pitcher constantly empty. Kennedy
found the idea for his invention at Little Caesar's Pizza. "After a 12-hour day at
Kennedy Bros.," he said, "my wife asked me to bring home dinner. I went for
something fast and cheap. Standing in line at Little Caesar's, I noticed they had only
eight or nine items to choose from and a very simple, fail-safe system of delivery. On the
way home, I thought of the simplicity of their situation vs. my own business." Days
later, Kennedy read that Little Caesar's Pizza had purchased the Detroit Tigers. "I
thought, `I'm doing something wrong,'" he said. "I left that day in search of
cheap pizza." Later that day, as he lifted yet another bottle of water into the
kitchen crock, he thought, "This stuff is cheap pizza." "I was in the
business of selling tanks and plumbing supplies," said Kennedy, who has since sold
his share of the company to his brother; "and I know how to plumb. I thought I ought
to be able to come up with a simpler way to get pure water into my house." Kennedy
began his five-year exploration by installing a pump that could bring 100 gallons of fresh
water into the kitchen. If only he could keep it fresh. "The purer the water, the
faster it will taint," said Kennedy. "I learned there are a lot of issues
involved in keeping pure water fresh; it's a big part of the equation. I also realized
that a pump is a moveable part that could need maintenance. I knew that if someone got up
to make a good cup of coffee and the water wasn't there, I could go from a hero to the
antichrist in one second. I had to be able to do it without a pump." Purchasing the
product from Big Sur Bottled Water and then using a system called "vapor
compression," Kennedy is now able to deliver maintenance-free water that is
99.99-percent pure. "The water does taste fresher," said Salinas pharmacist
Russell Ostarello, who purchases Fresh and Pure for his family of five. "They
oxygenate the water, so it has a spring water taste. Besides, I was paying a lot of money
for (bottled) water, and I had all these five-gallon canisters lying around the house.
Now, I still get fresh water ... but it's a month's supply without the clutter. We get
what we wanted, but it's more convenient." Ostarello said his wife even has noticed
an improvement in the texture and taste of the pasta she boils in pure water. "The
water system in San Benancio is very hard, " he said. "If you wash dishes in
this water, you have to replace them in a year. That's a lot of minerals and impurities
you don't want to be drinking." Another group interested in drinking pure water is
the Robert and Jeannie Ward family of Salinas who received a year's supply of "Fresh
and Pure" water from Kennedy last month as a birthday gift for their quadruplets who
arrived Dec. 7. Jeannie Ward said: "It's very important to us that the babies'
formula is made with good water. With Fresh and Pure, we're confident our babies are
getting good water without anything bad in it. This really is the best thing we've
done." Robert Ward agreed. "Living out here in the middle of farmland," he
said, "on a regular basis, the wells get nitrates and other chemicals. We just don't
want to take a chance that the water we give our babies won't be perfect." Kirk
Kennedy is happy to help. "If I never make a dime on this venture," he said,
"at least I've solved my problem and helped out others, as well." Cost for
system: $95 refundable installation deposit; monthly cost per gallon of water: 0-9, $1.75;
10-24, $1.65; 25-39, $1.55; 40 or more, $1.45." Copyright 1999, The Monterey County
Herald, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, All Rights Reserved
- Wisconsin farms overfertilized study claims (By The
Wisconsin State Journal - ENN, 18Mar ’99) "Farmers could be wearing out
Wisconsin's fertile farm land by applying too much fertilizer, a new UW-Madison study
says. In one case, researchers found soil had aged the equivalent of 5,000 years after
only 30 years of normal fertilizer applications. The aging was remarkable considering the
rich soil was young in geological terms -- only 10,000 years old, according to Philip
Barak, UW-Madison associate professor of soil chemistry and plant nutrition. If farmers
don't quit putting too much fertilizer on their fields, the soils could be ruined,
according to Barak and others who participated in the study. In the study, university
scientists examined 37 years of fertilizer data from an Arlington research station crops
test plot started by professor emeritus Lloyd Peterson. They found the soil had lost much
of its ability to hold small bits of calcium, magnesium and potassium (needed for plant
growth) because of increased acidity. Soil becomes acidic when too much nitrogen
fertilizer is applied. The excess nitrogen becomes nitric acid. Only about half of the
nitrogen farmers apply is actually taken up by the plants, leaving the remainder to become
nitric acid, according to Barak. "It's like dumping a tanker truck of nitric acid on
a field," he said. "There is 50 times more acid put in the soil from fertilizers
than from acid rain." Wisconsin's soils are "tender," and the qualities
that make them fertile also make them vulnerable. If farmers keep applying too much
fertilizer, northern soils might soon become like the sandy, less productive soils of the
Southeast United States, according to the study. "We run the risk of irreparably
damaging the soil," said Fred Madison, a UW-Madison soil science professor. "Now you've got a whole path of destruction." Farmers can reduce
fertilizer use and account for all sources of nitrogen including manure. In many cases,
using manure and commercial fertilizer on the same field is too much, Madison said.
Farmers also can use lime to neutralize the damaging acid. "It's like TUMS
(stomach tablets) for the soil," Barak said. Many farmers are taking fertilizer
management classes to reduce waste and improve their soils, said Ron Statz, director of
membership services for Wisconsin National Farmers Organization in Sauk City. Farmers are
writing "nutrient management" plans that account for all fertilizers used in
their fields, reducing waste and damage to the environment.
"The goal is to target fertilizers to the needs of crops" without waste,
Statz said. The United States is locked into a system of high production agriculture that
can't be easily reversed, Barak said. So farmers should take better care of their land,
and account for every pound of fertilizer. "We don't have new soils coming along to
replace the ones we have," Barak said. Copyright 1999, The Wisconsin State Journal
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, All Rights Reserved"
- More Turn to Home Water Treatment (EarthVision Reports,
18Mar’99) "LISLE, IL More and more Americans are turning to water treatment
devices in their homes according to the 1999 National Consumer Water Quality Survey,
showing a heightened concern for the quality of their water. Two thirds of consumers are
opting to use water treatment, bottled water or both according to the study. The study,
commissioned by the Water Quality Association (WQA), found that "nearly
three-quarters of American adults have concerns about their household water supply and one
in three does not believe the water supply is as safe as it should be." Peter Censky,
WQA executive director, said, "This year's research findings
confirm that while concerns about the quality of their drinking water remained stable,
consumers are increasingly turning their significant concerns into action through the
purchase of home water treatment units." Source: Washington Post/WQA
- Water habits – (ENN On-line, 17Mar’99)
"Consumer use of home water treatment systems is at an all-time high and has caught
up with the use of bottled water, reports the Water Quality Association. Nearly two-thirds of consumers are using home water treatment, bottled
water or both, according to the 1999 National Consumer Water Quality Survey, which
reiterated the results of surveys in previous years showing that nearly three-quarters of
American adults have concerns about their household water supply and one in three does not
believe his or her water supply is as safe as it should be. "This year's
research findings confirm that while concerns about the quality of their drinking water
remained stable, consumers are increasingly turning their significant concerns into action
through the purchase of home water treatment units," said Peter Censky, Water Quality
Association executive director."
- Controversial factory farm controls released (Environmental
News Network, Wednesday, March 10, 1999) The most recent U.S. strategy to clean up rivers,
lakes and coastal waterways by reducing pollution from large livestock operations is
coming under fire from an environmental group because it doesn't go far enough. The Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency
developed the plan, called the Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operation. Its
goal is to reduce runoff from 450,000 animal feeding operations in the U.S. -- cattle,
dairy, poultry and hog farms -- where animals are raised in confined situations. Manure,
which piles up at the rate of 1.37 billion tons a year, and wastewater from these
operations can pollute waterways with excess nutrients, organic matter, pathogens, heavy
metals and antibiotics, according to the Gore announcement. This situation contributes to
environmental and public health risks such as groundwater contamination, shellfish bed
closures, fish kills and outbreaks of toxic algae and microbes such as Pfiesteria,
according to government officials. The goal is to develop and implement nutrient
management plans for all animal feeding operations by 2009. The biggest animal
feeding operations -- about five percent of all operations nationwide -- will be required
by the strategy to obtain discharge permits under the Clean Water Act. Permits would be
required of operations with more than 1,000 animals that discharge directly into
waterways, contributing significantly to the impairment of a body of water. The strategy
also requires "integrators" -- large livestock companies that contract with
smaller operators to raise their animals -- to share responsibility for meeting regulatory
requirements. "The administration's final plan takes some important steps in the
right direction in its determination to regulate factory livestock operations in all 50
states and its apparent decision to hold corporations liable for pollution from the farms
they control," said Daniel Whittle, attorney for the North Carolina Environmental
Defense Fund. "Unfortunately, the government's strategy stops short of adequately
addressing the public health and environmental threats associated with current factory
farm waste management." North Carolina was the country's fastest growing pork
producing state until last year when state lawmakers imposed a moratorium on new and
expanded factory hog farms. During the moratorium, North Carolina is working on a plan to
phase out faulty waste management practices. "It's time for EPA to follow suit by
adopting a temporary national moratorium on new and expanding factory farms until real
pollution control plans are put in place," said Whittle. "Production at factory
farms has rapidly increased in the past few years and spread into many states lacking even
minimal environmental controls on these industries," said Joe Rudek, North Carolina
EDF senior scientist. "Like the draft plan issued last September, today's plan does
nothing in the near-term to address the serious shortcomings of current animal waste
practices like odor and air pollution." The Environmental Defense Fund contends that
instead of cleaning up factory farms, the plan will have many of the largest ones simply
writing up strategies for storing and disposing large volumes of manure based on existing
federal waste management standards and practices. Among other things, the new strategy
does not address air pollution or odor from factory farms, nor does it adequately
safeguard against groundwater contamination from the storage lagoons, according to the
group. "Our position is that the current technology is broken and needs to be
fixed," said Rudek. Vice President Gore also announced Tuesday that the administratin
is seeking $100 million in additional funding for states to control polluted runoff in
addition to the $157 million in proposed fiscal year 2000 funding to help states and
communities undertake other projects to reduce urban and agricultural runoff."
Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved
- Final Federal Plan Won’t End Pollution From Factory Farms
Says EDF (Environmental Defense Fund, March 9, 1999) "Plan Perpetuates
Widespread Use of Polluting Waste Technologies - The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
today criticized the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Department of
Agriculture's (USDA) final plan to control pollution from industrial-sized hog, poultry
and other livestock feeding operations, and once again called upon the Clinton
Administration to impose a moratorium on new factory farms. The final plan, which follows
a draft strategy released by EPA and USDA last September, stops short of implementing the
reforms proposed by EDF and other environmental and community groups. "The
Administration's final plan takes some important steps in the right direction in its
determination to regulate factory livestock operations in all fifty states and its
apparent decision to hold corporations liable for pollution from the farms they
control," said Daniel Whittle, attorney for the North Carolina EDF.
"Unfortunately, the government's strategy stops short of adequately addressing the
public health and environmental threats associated with current factory farm waste
management." Instead of cleaning up, the plan will have many of the largest factory
farms simply writing up strategies for storing and disposing large volumes of manure,
based on existing federal waste management standards and practices. Among
other things, these standards do not address air pollution or odor from factory farms, nor
do they adequately safeguard against groundwater contamination. In January, the
North Carolina State Health Director, Dennis McBride, concluded that odors threaten the
health of people living near factory hog farms in North Carolina. EDF has been calling for
the replacement of existing waste practices with new systems that do a better job of
eliminating or reducing the impact of factory farms to water and air quality and to rural
communities. "Production at factory farms has rapidly increased in the past few years
and spread into many states lacking even minimal environmental controls on these
industries. Like the draft plan issued last September, today's plan does nothing in the
near-term to address the serious shortcomings of current animal waste practices,"
said Joe Rudek, North Carolina EDF senior scientist. "The
continued management of massive volumes of manure in primitive open-air lagoons and
sprayfields that contaminate groundwater and streams, while releasing sickening odors and
pollutants into the air, is utterly unacceptable." "In North Carolina -- which
up until last year was the country's fastest growing pork producing state -- lawmakers
imposed a moratorium on new and expanded factory hog farms until a plan to phase out
faulty waste management practices can be completed. It's time for the EPA to follow
suit by adopting a temporary national moratorium on new or expanding factory farms until
real pollution control plans are put in place," said Whittle. The Environmental
Defense Fund, a leading, national, NY-based nonprofit organization, represents 300,000
members. EDF links science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable, and
economically viable solutions to today's environmental problems."
- EPA orders W.R. Grace to clean up ammonia (8Mar’99)
LANSING, MI — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an emergency
administrative order to W.R. Grace & Co. to clean up ammonia threatening an
underground source of drinking water for Lansing, MI, and 13 other public systems. EPA alleges that ammonia has entered the Saginaw Sandstone Aquifer from
the Motor Wheel Disposal site in Lansing. The aquifer supplies drinking water to 297,000
residents. In the 1960s, W.R. Grace produced fertilizer at a facility uphill from the
Motor Wheel site, and waste — including ammonia — washed into the site. Ammonia
has not entered the treatment plant, and there have been no nitrite or nitrate associated
illnesses. EPA has ordered W.R. Grace to develop a cleanup process and schedule by
April 30 that will achieve background levels of ammonia in the aquifer and prevent the
loss of any more drinking water wells. It has ordered the company to develop a plan to
provide an alternative source of drinking water equal to the volume and quality of the 10
closed wells no later than July 1.
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